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One of the difficulties of writing a memoir is going back in time to relive, and describe in detailed scenes, bad times in my life that I would prefer to leave behind. But there is no leaving those times behind. They are loud and solid ghosts that haunt me night and day. I know that I must face them and write my way through them if I am ever to let them go. I have read Pennebaker and Progoff. I am a certified journal instructor having worked through the training at the Center for Journal Therapy with Kay Adams. I have no doubts that I need to do this. And yet resistance is an invisible but strong wall that keeps me from the page. I once had a therapist who said you have to go through all the fires in your life, there is no way to go around them. But I am stuck today.

But I think I've found a way to crack the resistance and that is through art journaling. I need to journal my feelings in paint and collage to get them out. I need to write things I want no one to see and then paint o…

Those who know me well are aware that I write in many different genres--short stories, novels, poetry, memoir and personal essay. I've had some nice publishing successes with personal essays and short stories and my poetry collection is being designed as we speak. Still, I have always had the feeling I should be writing novels. First because that's what I read the most. Second because it seems to be the most viable publishing option in commercial terms. But what about my heart and soul? What kind of creative work lies there?

I am writing a book length memoir and I will continue with it because it's an important story for me to write. But after that I need to seek my creative center and when I cut through the fog--which in real life was thick as whipped cream this morning- I do not find novels in the slivers of cleared space.

What I find inside the soft rosy tissue of my creative soul is poetry. Poems sing to me, both reading them and writing them. If I'm away from writ…

Here we are at the start of the new year with a rainbow of possibilities strung out in 365 days of awesome.
How will you make 2014 your most awesome year?

I've given up on making resolutions that are forgotten in the fog of real life. I prefer intentions and goal planning. When I create goals for myself I can envision the little stepping stones I need to follow in order to reach that goal. Here are my intentions for 2014:

focus on health and wellness and not let the pressures and stress of my job prevent me from doing what I need to do for my physical, mental and spiritual healthspend more quality time with friends and familytake time to meditate and be still every daydo more guided journal writing to enter more deeply into who I amkeep my mind set on the goal of writing my memoir and write 3-4 pages a daybe a kinder more spiritual woman who lets stress roll off her back and not strangle her
I wish my family, friends, and my dear readers a healthy and awesome 2014.

Renee Howard Cassese was born on Long Island on September 8, 1949. She lived in Levittown from the age of four to fourteen, which spanned the years of 1953 to 1963. These were years of such joy and magic that Renee wanted to share them with you. According to her, and her best friend, Emilia, there is no other time or place that afforded such an idyllic childhood. The security and simplicity of that childhood lives within both these women, even now, after over fifty years of friendship. There were many lessons to be learned in the stories of Renee's childhood and she wants to share them with her blog readers.

Renee works as a school administrator, but her love is for writing fiction and poetry and some memoir. She would love to teach women how to write and tell their own stories. Her dream and goal is to be a known published author.

Renee's joys in life are her family, reading, cooking and being outdoors in nature. She loves travel, but mostly travels to visit her sons who live on opposite US coasts.

Renee loves people and the interchange of ideas, but requires many and frequent periods of solitude and silence to stay calm.

She would love to hear your comments about the site, especially from others who grew up in Levittown, or who live there now.